The Aston Martin Racing team, which will race in the iconic blue and orange colours of Gulf, has announced its driver line-up for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

Following an historic GT1 class victory at the endurance classic last year, the 2008 line-up is once again an exciting blend of youth and experience, with four new drivers joining two members of the winning crew from last year. The evocative colour scheme, a departure from the traditional Aston Martin Racing Green, is also new for this year thanks to a partnership with Gulf Oil International.

Car number 007 will be crewed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany), Andrea Piccini (Italy) and Karl Wendlinger (Austria).

Car number 009 – the same number as last year’s class-winning car – will be driven by David Brabham (Australia), Antonio Garcia (Spain) and Darren Turner (Great Britain).

Brabham and Turner have been involved with the Aston Martin Racing team since its inception in 2005, and both formed part of the winning 009 crew last year. Frentzen is new to Aston Martin, while the remaining three drivers all have past experience of the DBR9 with the factory or customer teams.

“I think we’ve got another very strong line-up this year,” said Aston Martin Racing Team Principal George Howard-Chappell. “David and Darren are absolutely known quantities to us, having formed part of the crew that won GT1 last year, and it’s very good to have them on board again. Antonio and Karl have both been extremely active in our customer teams, and we have been very impressed with them throughout our testing programme.

Andrea drove for us at Le Mans in 2006 – as well as in America – so we’re delighted to welcome him back. As for Heinz-Harald, his reputation speaks for itself, so we look forward to a successful collaboration and another exciting race.”

After finishing on the podium twice at Le Mans following a return to racing in 2005, it finally came good for Aston Martin last year when the 009 DBR9 clinched GT1 class victory at the end of an action-packed race.

This year, the team is in no doubt that the challenge will be even greater in the face of formidable opposition. In total there will be 10 cars in the GT1 class, from four different manufacturers.